Highguard is shutting down this month

Gaming Entertainment News Highguard is shutting down this month Another victim of publishers chasing the success of games like Fortnite. Another victim of publishers chasing the success of games like Fortnite. by Andrew Webster Mar 3, 2026, 8:16 PM UTC Image: Wildlight Entertainment Andrew Webster is an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories. Another high-profile live-service game is shutting down soon after launch: this time it’s the free-to-play squad shooter Highguard . Developer Wildlight Entertainment says that, even though Highguard reached 2 million players, the game will be shut down permanently on March 12th. That’s less than two months after the game debuted on January 26th . “Despite the passion and hard work of our team, we have not been able to build a sustainable player base to support the game long term,” the studio explained . Before the game ends for good, it’s getting one last update either tonight or tomorrow that will add a new character and weapon, among other changes. Despite a splashy reveal at The Game Awards in December , things had not been looking good for Highguard , the first release from Wildlight, a studio founded by former developers on series like Apex Legends , Call of Duty , and Titanfall , and reportedly funded in part by Tencent . Wildlight laid off “most” of its staff in February , and a week later the Highguard website went down , prompting concerns that the game might be over. It’s an abrupt end for Highguard , but that short runway for live-service games is becoming increasingly common. Sony infamously shut down the sci-fi shooter Concord and closed its studio within a matter of weeks , even though the game had been in development for eight years. And 2XKO , a new fighting game from League of Legends developer Riot, appears to be on notice as well; its development team was hit with layoffs a few weeks after launc...